Click here to visit the IISD's SDG Knowledge Hub knowledgebase.  SDG UPDATE A compilation of items recently posted to the SDG Knowledge Hub Tuesday, 29 May 2018 POLICY BRIEFS NGO Brief: Families Call for Increased Climate Action in Court Case Against EU Ten families from within and outside Europe are taking the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to the European General Court, asserting that their livelihoods are at risk as a result of the EU’s failure to adequately address climate change. SDG Knowledge Weekly: Global Health and US Impacts This week’s brief reviews a selection of reports and articles released around the 71st World Health Assembly, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 21-26 May 2018. The publications examine how the international community is taking steps to contextualize health efforts and accelerate progress towards SDG 3 (ensure healthy lives and promote well-being). FEATURED OECD Reviews How Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development Can Contribute to Resilient Societies 28 May 2018: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released the 2018 edition of its report on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD). The report discusses ways through which integrated and coherent policies, supported by strong institutional mechanisms, can contribute to the theme of the July 2018 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF): 'Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies.' The report also reviews eight building blocks for enhancing policy coherence for sustainable development, and identifies emerging good institutional practices drawing on recent OECD work, country surveys and countries’ voluntary national reviews (VNRs). WMO, WHO, UNEP Launch Coalition on Health, Environment and Climate Change 25 May 2018: The World Health Organization (WHO), UN Environment Programme (UNEP, or UN Environment) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have launched a global coalition on health, environment and climate change, which aims to improve coordination and reduce the annual 12.6 million deaths caused by environmental risks, especially air pollution. EU Issues Waste Management Rules for Circular Economy 22 May 2018: The EU has issued a set of waste management directives as part of a broader Circular Economy Action Plan adopted in December 2015. The new rules aim to prevent waste and increase recycling. NEWS Co-facilitators Update Draft Global Compact on Migration Ahead of June Negotiations 28 May 2018: The co-facilitators for negotiations on the global compact on migration have circulated the second revised draft of the compact, reflecting intergovernmental consultations held to date. The section setting out a cooperative framework for safe, orderly and regular migration includes a new, stand-alone objective on international cooperation. UN Secretary-General Announces Initiative for Global Disarmament 24 May 2018: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has announced a vision and agenda for global disarmament, aiming to eliminate nuclear arsenals and other deadly weapons around the world. He said the initiative has a strong basis in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and that spending resources on weapons drains resources from sustainable development efforts. UNGA Debate on Sustaining Peace Calls for Partnerships and Inclusion 24 May 2018: During the UN General Assembly's (UNGA) annual debate on peacebuilding and sustaining peace, UN Member States underscored the need for respecting national ownership, ensuring inclusion in peacebuilding processes, especially for women and youth, and engaging in partnerships with non-governmental bodies, the private sector and international financial institutions, to increase the funding for the Peacebuilding Fund. HLPF Programme Makes More Time for SDGs 6, 7, 11, 12 and 15 22 May 2018: The programme of work for the 2018 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) has been updated, with the latest schedule devoting more time to discussing progress toward five SDGs. The HLPF is the UN body with the "central role in overseeing a network of follow-up and review processes at the global level," according to the 2030 Agenda. Final Multi-stakeholder Hearing Highlights Good Practices in Migration 21 May 2018: Stakeholders took part in the fifth and final informal multi-stakeholder hearing on the global compact on migration, to discuss how "lessons from the field" can inform global policymaking. Participants addressed migrants’ healthcare needs (SDG 3), partnerships among government, civil society organizations (CSOs) and the private sector (SDG 17), social integration (SDG 10) and education for migrants (SDG 4). Security Council Advised on Handling International Criminal Justice 17 May 2018: Theodor Meron, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, called on the UN Security Council to serve the interests of the UN membership as a whole instead of prioritizing its members' own interests. During an open debate presided over by the president of Poland, Meron and other panelists discussed issues in upholding international law, the evolution of international criminal justice, and cooperation between international organs to resolve disputes. UN, World Bank Group Sign SDGs Partnership Framework 18 May 2018: The UN and the World Bank Group have signed a Strategic Partnership Framework outlining cooperation to help countries implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The project includes four areas of cooperation: finance and implementation support for countries to achieve the SDGs; “decisive” global action on climate change; joint work in post-crisis and humanitarian settings; and harnessing data to improve development outcomes. Responsible Business Report Finds High Risk of "SDG Washing" 16 May 2018: Ethical Corporation has released its fourth annual 'Responsible Business Trends Report,' examining how sustainability is driving corporate strategies and quantifying sustainability impacts. The 2018 report also looks at how the SDGs and Paris Agreement on climate change, respectively, are driving business strategy. SDSN Initiative Awards Grants to Local Data Innovations for SDGs 1 May 2018: The Sustainable Development Solution Network’s (SDSN) Local Data Action Solutions Initiative (LDA-SI) has awarded five micro-grants to support local data innovations related to indicator localization, data platforms, third party data and national-local data integration. The Initiative aims to inform sub-national SDG data efforts around the world through the dissemination of lessons learned. UNECA Toolkit to Support Alignment of Development Goals May 2018: The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has released a report arguing for an integrated approach to the implementation of internationally agreed development goals. The report reflects on Africa’s performance on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and makes recommendations for integrated implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union's Agenda 2063. Changes Recommended to SDG 6 Targets and Indicators 26 April 2018: Advisors to the UN Joint Monitoring Programme for Drinking-water, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) have published an independent critique of the means of implementation (MoI) targets for SDG 6 on water and sanitation. Their review, in the open-access journal npj Clean Water, calls for changes to the two MoI targets (SDG 6.a and 6.b), as well as the target (SDG 6.5) on integrated water resource management (IWRM) and their associated indicators. P4R Network Releases Comparative Analysis of 2017 VNRs April 2018: In a "non-paper" analyzing the 43 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) submitted to the 2017 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), the transnational multi-stakeholder network Partners for Review (P4R) discusses institutional mechanisms for review processes, participation of non-state actors, and statistics and data for the SDGs. Per the paper, almost all the 43 VNRs outline the importance of communication and public awareness regarding the SDGs, and approximately 20 of them refer directly to communication strategies or campaigns targeting the general public. CURRENT & UPCOMING EVENTS SEE MORE » Civil Society 7 (C7) 28-29 May 2018 | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada OECD Forum 2018 29-30 May 2018 | Paris, Ile-De-France, France Ad Hoc Open-Ended Expert Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics 29-31 May 2018 | Nairobi, Kenya UNGA High-level Event on Youth 30 May 2018 | New York City, US 4th Data Gaps Initiative Meeting (DGI) (G20 2018) 30-31 May 2018 | Basel, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland European Sustainable Development Week (ESDW) 2018 30 May - 5 June 2018 | TBA UNLEASH SDG Innovation Lab 2018 30 May - 6 June 2018 | Singapore, Singapore Towards a Resilient Financial Sector: Disclosing Physical Climate Risk and Opportunities 31 May 2018 | London, England, UK G7 Finance and Development Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting 31 May - 2 June 2018 | Whistler, British Columbia, Canada Global Solutions Summit 2018 4 June 2018 | New York City, US Interactive Civil Society Hearing on Tuberculosis 4 June 2018 | New York City, US 4th International Symposium: The Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans 4-8 June 2018 | Washington D.C., US EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW2018) 4-8 June 2018 | Brussels, Belgium Intergovernmental Negotiations on Migration Compact - June 2018 4-8 June 2018 | New York City, US Mountain Futures Conference 4-8 June 2018 | Yunnan, China Election of President of 73rd UN General Assembly 5 June 2018 | New York City, US Funding for the IISD's SDG Knowledge Hub has been provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) The IISD's SDG Knowledge Hub is a knowledgebase tracking implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 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